Install SSL Certificate (GoDaddy)

Overview

You can pay for an SSL certificate (e.g. GoDaddy), which lasts for one year. This certificate comes as a text file that you save on your VM, and then point Nginx to it.

Here is the overall process for obtaining an SSL certificate:

1. Create a private key
2. Using this private key, create a CSR
3. Submit the CSR to the SSL provider
4. The SSL provider returns an SSL certificate, bundled with their chain certificate
5. Copy the private key and SSL certificate to the Linux filesystem
6. Point Nginx to the SSL certificate and key

Before you begin

Before you begin, you will need the following files:

Private key

This is the private key that was used to generate the CSR.

SSL certificate

This is the SSL certificate for your domain. Your cert may also be bundled (concatenated) with the chain cert of your SSL provider.

Install the SSL certificate

1. Copy the private key and SSL certificate to the following location:

/etc/nginx/ssl/

2. Edit the Nginx conf file:

/etc/nginx/conf.d/website.conf

3. Modify the following lines so that they point to your new files:

ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/website.bundle.crt;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/website.key;

4. On line 61, change the following line:

server_name _;

And replace the wildcard _ with your domain name.

server_name robtest.thorn.tech;

5. Restart Nginx

sudo su
nginx -t && service nginx restart

Verify your SSL certificate

At this point, your SSL certificate should be installed.

Open a web browser, and navigate to your domain. You should see a valid SSL certificate.